Let us put aside for a moment all the dubious assertions and seeming evasions laced throughout the news conference Hillary Clinton held earlier this week regarding her emails, home-based Internet server, and so forth. For a careful examination of such, read Mollie Hemingway's close analysis.

Instead, focus for a moment on an underreported facet of this latest installment of the Clintons' strange journey through American public life: The fact that "The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration."

That centerpiece of the "vast Right Wing conspiracy," The Washington Post, tells us that Algeria, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Australia, Norway and the Dominican Republic all gave money to the Clinton Foundation during Mrs. Clinton's term at State. How the last-noted rather impoverished nation managed to give money to the Clinton Foundation surely is an intriguing story in its own right, but beyond the scope of this short article. more >>

More than 159,000 people have signed a petition calling on the White House to file charges against 47 GOP senators who sent a letter to Iran stating that any nuclear agreement between the Obama administration and the Islamic Republic would be null and void without support from Congress.

Posted on the website "We the People" on Monday, the petition claims that the GOP senators violated federal law when they sent the letter to Iran.

"Forty-seven senators saw fit to issue a condescending letter to the Iranian government stating that any agreement brokered by our president would not be upheld once the president leaves office," reads the petition.more >>

Truth can be an exasperating thing, especially when we come upon it unintentionally. However, for those who have the courage to pursue it in its purest form, truth becomes the indelible essence of their being and the lifeblood of existence as they journey ever forward into that to which they are destined.

As I write, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's powerfully effective speech to the U.S. Congress weighs heavy on my mind. I am reminded of another time and another place when the mighty Israeli army stood against what many saw as a formidable foe. It took a young shepherd boy, David, to see the truth through all the drama.

Standing eyeballs-to-bellybutton against the gargantuan man-slayer, Goliath, this boy who would one day be king boldly defied the Philistine giant before him. Standing alone in that moment, David knew in his heart he was not alone. "You come against me with a sword, and a spear," David said, "but I come to you in the name of…the God of the armies of Israel." David threw a stone, the giant fell, and Israel's foe lay defeated. more >>

Iran is the gravest danger to the U.S. and the world. Not ISIS. Not Boko Haram. Not Kony. Not Al Shabab. Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress helped refocus the distracted Obama administration's attention on this rising threat. It did not force them, unfortunately, to reconsider their ill-advised course. But at least it made President Obama and Secretary Kerry respond to the case made by Netanyahu before the American people and the world.

Our attention has been distracted of late by the medieval horrors of ISIS (Islamist Savagery Inspired by Satan). They have beheaded and burned and crucified innocents in their drive to rivet the attention of the world to their barbarism and menace. Of course, ISIS must be dealt with. more >>

The Obama administration has assured the world that a nuclear-armed Iran is not an acceptable outcome of ongoing negotiations. The President stated in 2012 that "preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon isn't just in the interest of Israel, it is profoundly in the security interests of the United States." No doubt the rest of the civilized world agrees. Russia, China and North Korea are among the very few nations who support the Iranian regime achieving its long-standing ambition of fielding nuclear warheads.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of a fanatical group of Shia "Twelvers" present an existential threat to the world that has never been seen in history. President Obama and his senior diplomat and negotiator, John Kerry, seem to have decided to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium and developing warheads. The proof is that, at the end of 2013, Iran had enough enriched uranium for seven warheads. A year later (Dec 2014) they now have enough for eight. By any measure, this does not reflect progress for the US and its allies in these negotiations.

Late last week The New York Times ran an essay by a Marine infantry officer, Timothy Kudo, based on Mr. Kudo's experience giving orders to kill men in Afghanistan. He didn't pull the trigger, but he gave the orders — often viewing the action on grainy screens. His essay is thoughtful, though it doesn't square with either my own reflections or the reflections of others I know that made similar decisions in similar circumstances.

I salute him for his service, and I'm not here to judge how he processed the kill orders he gave.

There is, however, one segment of his piece that I think demonstrates that anguish and self-doubt are at least a partial product of our military's failure to educate and motivate. We shy from describing the enemy's true moral nature and ascribe responsibility to our own soldiers for innocent deaths that are truly the enemy's fault. Read these two paragraphs: more >>